Involvement of obesity in oral carcinogenesis using animal models

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We investigated whether obesity influences oral (tongue) carcinogenesis using obese model animals, such as db/db and ob/ob mice. The results indicated that the obese mice were highly susceptible to 4-NQO-induced tongue and esophageal carcinogenesis when compared to their wild types (WT) of mice. In addition, the susceptibility was high in db/db mice in comparison with ob/ob mice. The immunohistochemical expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1α, IL-1β, interleukin-4, interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and TNF-α) in the tongue squamous cell carcinomas which developed in the db/db mice were significantly greater than that developed in the WT mice (p<0.05-p<0.01). However, there were no significant differences in the expressions of NF-κB, Stat3, and Nrf2 between the obese and WT mice. Our results may suggest that overexpression of these pro-inflammatory cytokines plays an important role in highly susceptible to 4-NQO-induced tongue and esophageal carcinogenesis in obese mice.